samalone/websocket-actor-system

Installation

Add the package https://github.com/samalone/websocket-actor-system to your Xcode project, or add:

   .package(url: "https://github.com/samalone/websocket-actor-system.git", from: "1.0.0"),

to your package dependencies in your Package.swift file. Then add:

   .product(name: "WebSocketActors", package: "websocket-actor-system"),

to the target dependencies of your package target.

Quick start

In your shared library, import WebSocketActors and define your distributed actors.

import Distributed
import WebSocketActors

extension NodeIdentity {
   public static let server = NodeIdentity(id: "server")
}

extension ActorIdentity {
   public static let greeter = ActorIdentity(id: "greeter", node: .server)
}

public distributed actor Greeter {
   public typealias ActorSystem = WebSocketActorSystem

   public distributed func greet(name: String) -> String {
      return "Hello, \(name)!"
   }
}

In your server code, start the server in the background and make sure the server keeps running.

func main() async throws {
   let address = ServerAddress(scheme: .insecure, host: "localhost", port: 8888)
   let system = WebSocketActorSystem(id: .server)
   try await system.runServer(at: address)

   _ = system.makeLocalActor(id: .greeter) {
      Greeter(actorSystem: system)
   }

   while true {
      try await Task.sleep(for: .seconds(1_000_000))
   }
}

On the client, connect to the server and call the remote actor.

func receiveGreeting() async throws {
   let address = ServerAddress(scheme: .insecure, host: "localhost", port: 8888)
   let system = WebSocketActorSystem()
   try await system.connectClient(to: address)

   let greeter = try Greeter.resolve(id: .greeter, using: system)
   let greeting = try await greeter.greet(name: "Alice")
   print(greeting)
}

Documentation

The documentation for WebSocketActors includes both API documentation and getting-started articles:

• WebSocketActors documentation

Sample Code

For a basic example of writing a client/server app using WebSocketActors, see my Monotonic project. It implements a simple iOS app that displays a counter above an "Increment" button. Clicking the increment button bumps the counters on all client apps connected to the server in real time.

Additional reading

• Introducing Swift Distributed Actors from the Swift Blog.
• Introducing Distributed Actors from Apple's DistributedCluster documentation
• Meet distributed actors in Swift from WWDC 2022
• Apple's documentation on the Distributed module.
• Apple's TicTacFish sample code

Package Metadata

Repository: samalone/websocket-actor-system

Default branch: main

README: README.md